An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating with little or no user input. It does so by using sensing devices such as radar, lidar, image sensors, and the like. Autonomous vehicles further use information from global positioning systems (GPS) technology, navigation systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, and/or drive-by-wire systems to navigate the vehicle.
While recent years have seen significant advancements in autonomous vehicles, such vehicles might still be improved in a number of respects. For example, it is not uncommon for a vehicle to encounter some form of unexpected obstacle along its planned path. That is, certain types of embedded obstacles such as speed bumps, potholes, and the like, as well as transient obstacles such as stopped cars, tire debris, small animals, etc. might not be adequately accounted for during path planning, particularly in autonomous vehicles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for implementing object avoidance and path planning in autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.